Light Lemonade
by azuracanton
Summary: You eat less, you weigh less - isn't that how it works? Well, as Mikan is beginning to find, it's more complicated than that. After all - when life keeps giving you lemons, how much lemonade can you drink before you can't bear to drink another drop?


**Catheriney2004: **This idea came up when a good friend of mine finally opened up about some stuff she'd been going through by herself. (bittersweet smile) I know a lot of us can relate, and I sincerely hope this story will touch some people's hearts.

This story is told from Mikan's point of view, and...well, I think you guys understand.

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**Prologue**

If you were to ask anyone that I knew – just about anyone, they'd say that I was the average teenage girl. You know – the normal weight-watching, whining, getting-the-occasional-A-plus kind of girl. Yeah. That's what they'd all say. Most people would accept this, blend in with the crowd, and smile because they were one of them. But I'm not the type to agree with "average". I wanted to be the prettiest, the smartest, the tallest (well, maybe not so much), and the skinniest – particularly that. This was my downfall.

And it all started when I was thirteen.

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**Chapter One:**

**Life, Death and Homework**

I stepped tentatively onto the grayish, wobbly, electronic scale, my breath held in a bundle of nerves. My toes wiggled skittishly at the cool, smooth touch of the plastic metal, and my fingers clenched tightly in foreboding. Recently, this bathroom accessory had become my most frequently-visited house-hold appliance friend, and I had barely gone a meal or snack without going to visit it once or twice at a time. Yeah, that's how things were like around here now. I was, completely and utterly, attached to this new best friend, weird or not.

My breath held so tightly that my chest squeezed in discomfort, I glanced down at the black, digital numbers that consumed my all-too-impending fate.

116.8.

One-hundred sixteen point eight.

I let my breath go at the simple sight of these four numbers, and my lungs screamed in relief, gulping up the oxygen without a hesitation. But for some reason, even as I stepped heavily off of the scale in a gloomy relief, my chest simply would not stop squeezing. I took several more breaths in bewilderment at this strange sensation, and I soon came to a simple conclusion.

I was totally disappointed with myself.

Yeah, so, okay – the BMI (Body Mass Index, by the way) of a 116.8 pounds, five foot, 3 inches female girl is a 21 on the 18.5 to 24.9 scale – but that wasn't good enough for me. In fact, my obsession with my weight was so out of control that I couldn't even sleep at night when I knew that I weighed over 116 pounds. _I have to do_ something, I would think. _This just isn't right._

My heart still squeezing considerably, I walked out of the marble-floored bathroom, my troubled eyes set on whatever was in front of me. My brain whirred, and I thought. Hard. Pensiveness was always the second mood that I went through in the delicate cycle of weighing myself, and the first was typically fretting – sounds like a little too much, right? Well, for a worry-wart like me, it was a big deal. I blamed myself for _everything_. Especially my weight, at the time.

As I stormed past my room, an urge to slap myself nearly overwhelmed my common sense. Shaking my hands down by my sides furiously, I silently whispered an incoherent curse in attempt to vent some frustration. I kept my mouth firmly shut afterwards, though, as it was a rule in our family that curse-words were not to be uttered at any time. Oh – there I went. Being a little-miss-perfect all over again.

I plopped onto the cushy, cream-colored living room couch, my foot resting on the arm of the furniture. I stared up at the blank white ceiling, hoping to distract myself from the sheer disappointment. How could I have let this happen? I hadn't eaten all that much for dinner today, and there was no way I could have fluctuated three pounds in less than an hour!

I hit the couch cushion with my fist and clenched my jaw. Peering down at my stomach with scorn, I glared at the slow rising and falling of my abdomen as I took three deep breaths. This was so unfair; I didn't deserve to weigh this much! I let out a long, frustrated sigh and dropped my head back onto the couch arm.

_Forget this_, I thought. _I've got homework to do._

Heaving myself up off of the couch, I brushed my shirt off and tugged down on the cuff of my sleeves, grimacing as I felt my stomach brush the cottony material. I sucked my breath in until I could no longer feel the cotton on my skin, and then let out another huge sigh of disappointment.

_Maybe I did eat too much for dinner,_ I thought gloomily, and trudged down the hall to my work desk. Reaching for the sleek, black leather of the swivel chair, I yanked it violently from its entanglement with the couch. I couldn't help but roll my eyes as a stray paper fluttered silently to the floor. Groaning as I bent to snatch it up, the glimmer of a candy wrapper in the corner of my desk leg caught my attention. Narrowing my already-near-sighted eyes, I cautiously leaned forward and reached to pick up the litter. I stood up straight to study the wrapper more carefully.

"Snicker's Bar, King Size," I read from the sharply gleaming piece of thin plastic. "Serving size 1 bar, 4 oz. Servings per package, 1. Calories per serving: 530." I stopped reading there out of pure disgust.

_Ew,_ I thought with ready scorn. _I couldn't eat _that.

Shaking my head with disgust, I dropped the offending wrapper into the wastebasket, wondering which shameless family member of mine could have consumed the entire 530 calories of sugar and fat in one go. The wrapper certainly hadn't been there last night, and it wasn't unusual for me to find the remnants of a secretive midnight snack under my desk, where it was dark and hard to see things.

My younger brother was the first suspect to come to mind, as he loved to gorge on everything with the label "junk" on it. It couldn't have been my mother, who was so admirably indifferent towards foods of all kinds, and my father was too strict on himself to indulge on an entire candy bar all at once.

Turning these thoughts over pointlessly in my head, I sighed as I turned back to my dark mahogany desk, dropped heavily into my black swivel chair, and began to file gloomily through my binder.

It was time to get my mind off my worries and actually do some work.

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**Catheriney2004: **That's chapter one, and…well, please point out anything you liked or just noticed in general! XO

**Other Fanfics to Check Out (please? :) pretty please?):**

**Sakura Flower –**

Mikan Sakura is a very advanced Alice user, and possesses many Alices, dues to the fact that she originally had the Nullification Alice and the Stealing Alice. She has enrolled herself in Alice Academy for unknown reasons. When Mikan starts going to Alice Academy, she becomes a popular idol of those around her, due to her smarts and beauty. But, where does Mikan disappear off to at night and occasionally at school?

No one knows where Mikan goes except for Hotaru and herself. And all _we_ know is that Mikan's parents have been captured by the AAO, (Anti-Alice Organization) and she is _not_ gonna just sit there and watch them be used. But she has two choices. Take her parents back and let AAO slowly dominate the world? Or kill her parents mercilessly and take the AAO down quickly? Read to find out which road she takes.

**The Cruise – **

Mikan Sakura, daughter of the richest business man and woman in the world, is going on a private, around-the-world cruise with her parents. Or so she thinks. Unfortunately, her parents have invited all of their friends, along with their children. They just happen to be around the same age as Mikan, and are also filthy rich. What will happen between these people? Read to find out.

**A Stumble Into the Olympics –**

Mikan Sakura is looking for a job. She's got the looks, the smarts, and the strength to do just about anything. But she can't find work suitable for her. She's not picky about the jobs or anything, but it's just that whenever is hired for a decent job, the guys always flirt with her! How the heck is she gonna find a job that doesn't involve all of these flirts? Well, the answer is clear, for one day, she miraculously finds a flyer saying that Natsume Hyuuga, world class Olympic swimmer, is looking for an agent! She immediately goes for the job, and does she get hired? Well, that's for me to know and you to find out.

**Breaking Through the Ice – **

Mikan, a lowly beggar, is in a depressed state. Why live when you can die? She asks herself. Why try when you'll just fail? But those questions just might be washed away when she coincidentally meets a boy by the name of Natsume Hyuuga, who just happens to be a billionaire child-genius. What will happen to these two? Read to find out.

**Only a Burden – **

Mikan Sakura, a 13-year-old female, is a patient at Alice's Hospital – A.K.A the hospital for those who are doomed to die. She writes a poem about her sorrow. A sad story and a lesson to all. One-shot.

**Who I Am Inside – **

Hotaru has hurt Mikan's feelings for the umpteenth time in her life. _Why?_ She asks herself. _Why can't I even be nice to my best friend?_ This is a one-shot that touches the heart to the very core.

**Tainted Water – **

Mikan and Natsume are 16 now, and nothing has changed between them. They're still fighting, fighting, fighting. But whenever Mikan asks him if he likes her even a tiny bit, he always says "No." Mikan feels as if her heart is breaking. But what happens when she writes a poem about lies and tainted water? A short one-shot for those out there who have been lied to.

**Searching for You – **

Things are not always going to be the same for the two newcomers at Alice Academy. Being the previous heartthrobs at the mysterious school of Devia Academy, they expect nothing different from the girls of this new prestigious school. But the mysterious Kaito Sakura of this strange place just keeps stealing the attention from them with his rare, and equally powerful, B.O.S.S. Alice. (A.K.A. Borrow, Obliterate, Steal, and Save Alice) But who exactly is this person, and what secret is he hiding? And is he even a guy?

Natsume came to Alice Academy to pursue the beautiful girl that he had fallen in love with a year before. He had no idea why she had left him so suddenly, and he couldn't stand thinking about her, until he finally found out where she had taken refuge to: Alice Academy. Here's when the wild chase starts, and will Natsume ever find his beloved Mikan through all the obstacles he encounters? And what about that Kaito Sakura? Who is he?


End file.
